Recipe for Disaster
“You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes—” (Deuteronomy 12:8 NKJV)
Did they Mean this?
“So Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the LORD has said we will do (Exodus 24:3 NKJV).”
Moses was given the way for children of Israel to worship while he was on the Mount (which likely speaks of heaven). The children of Israel were not to worship like the Egyptians. When they got into the promised land, they were not to worship like the pagans in the land of Canaan. But if they had been given only the first command of the ten commandments, they would have violated it. The first command says that they were to have no other Gods “before” or in place of or alongside of the Lord. God wanted their complete faithfulness to Him.
In view of all that the Lord had done for them in saving them, feeding them, giving them water for themselves and their cattle, making sure that their clothes didn’t wear out on the journey and so on and so on, one would think that It would be easy to keep that first commandment. But the children of Israel were attracted to Baal worship. Why I do not know.
I Will
One of Satan’s characteristics is pride. In Isaiah 14:12-14 we read:
“How you are fallen from heaven,I
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations.
For you have said in your heart:
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High. (Isaiah 14:14 NKJV).”
Notice the five “I will’s.” How they contrast with the Lord when he said in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done (Luke 22:42 NKJV).”
Before we Were Saved or Born Again
We are all self-willed. Ever since Eve decided to listen to Satan so she could be “as gods” knowing (or determining for herself) what was good and what was evil, people have resisted having anyone telling them what to do. But we don’t get to heaven by telling God how to do His business. We get to heaven by repenting (getting our mind changed about our sin and self-will) and by submitting to the authority of “what God says.” Paul asks the Galatians (who had turned away from the Gospel of grace to the Gospel of doing and legalism), “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified (Galatians 3:1 NKJV)?” Christians are not free to do what is right in their own eyes. They are free from the dominion of sin and Satan, so that they can serve the Lord. And serving the Lord involves putting others ahead of one’s own self.
After we are Saved or Born Again
1. We are supposed to have a desire to represent the Lord to the world. Do we?
2. We are no longer slaves of sin (or Satan) but we are now slaves of righteousness (or Christ).
3. We are to hold those in authority in honor and we are to pray for them and obey them.
4. We are to recognize that every decision we make affects somebody else in addition to us personally. And we are to make decisions that are best for others. We are particularly supposed to make decisions that will attract the unsaved to the person of Christ so that they can be delivered from the wrath that is coming.
Conclusion
We who are saved or “born again” are not “gods” but sinners saved by grace. We are not free to do as we please, but we are free to serve the Lord. We cannot and should not do that which is right in our own eyes but we should look to the Scriptures as interpreted by the Holy Spirit for guidance And then we should “obey!”.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of January 30, 2022